Alan’s Famous French Toast

In celebration of French Toast Day – 28 November – I share this recipe with you. It has been declared by no less a collection of luminaries as the Cape Town Familia as “the best French toast in the country”. In fact they went through phase of ordering French Toast in restaurants to see if they could find a better French Toast than ‘Gruncle’s’.

And the score so far? Gruncle: Twentity Gazillion hundreds of thousands. Other Restaurants: A big fat zero.

So there you have it from the mouths of Nieces (and their Mom!)

Ingredients:

Bread (at least two slices per person) and at least a day old
Eggs (one and a half per person)
Dash of Milk
Dijon Mustard
Sliced Ham
Cinnamon
Sugar (brown is better)
‘Bland’ Cheese – Mozzarella/Gouda etc.
Maple Syrup/Honey
Oil and butter for frying

Method:

Make a Cinnamon/Sugar mix to your liking (we keep a little jar in the spice cupboard as it is also nice to sprinkle on All Bran or Oats)
Beat Eggs and dash of Milk with a little of the Cinnamon/Sugar mix
One slice of Ham per two slices of Bread
Slices enough Cheese to place in between the two slices of Bread
Using a pan large enough to place two slices of Bread side by side, heat Oil and put a blob of Butter in
Dredge the Bread in the Egg mixture
Spread Dijon Mustard to taste on a slice of Ham
Place both slices of Bread in the Oil/Butter mix just to seal the Egg
Flip over One slice and place the Ham slice spread with Dijon Mustard on the just cooked side of the Bread
Place the cheese slices on top of the Ham/Dijon Mustard
Lift up the remaining slice of Bread and place the cooked side on top of the Cheese
Press down and then flip carefully to continue cooking the remaining side.
Serve with Cinnamon/Sugar and Maple Syrup or Honey.

The breakfast favorite French toast goes by many names depending on where it’s being served up – eggy bread, German toast, poor knights’ pudding, Bombay toast – but it’s always made of the same key ingredients. Egg, milk – or cream – and bread. This delicious sweet snack is often served with sugar or syrup and fruit, and consists of bread slices fried in a mixture of milk and egg. In France, its name is ‘pain perdu’, which literally means ‘lost bread’, because it would often be made with stale or old bread.

Although we tend to call it French Bread, the dish isn’t known to have come from France. Some ancient Latin recipes from the 4th century mention soaking bread in milk before frying, and in fourteenth Century Germany the term ‘poor knights’ pudding’ was coined for the sweet treat because it was seen as an affordable meal for those without too much money to spend. Today, it’s eaten across the world as a breakfast meal or a sweet snack.